Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his post on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, which is celebrated on December 10, linked the actions of Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown in Syria, and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who gave him asylum in the Russian Federation after his exile.
In his post, Zelensky wondered why “brave” Assad fled to Putin, and where will the Russian dictator flee to.
Zelensky linked the regimes of Assad and Putin
— This Human Rights Day is accompanied by horrible photos of Syrian prisons and dungeons that were opened after Assad fled. People were humiliated there for many years. Men and women. They were beaten, tortured, raped. Thousands and thousands of people went through this factory of violence, — Zelensky noted.
He added that the Assad regime had been based solely on violence for decades. Such are all the regimes that Putin supports.
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In Ukraine, in every populated area that was occupied by the Russians, we see the same dungeons, prisons, torture, rape and other crimes, he noted.
Zelensky called Russia a prison state that can hold on to someone else's stolen land only thanks to the prisons and dungeons it houses there. The president stressed that Russian tanks are always followed by repression and torture.
— We first saw this on our land in Crimea in 2014, when the Russian occupation led to the repression of the indigenous people, the largest Muslim community in Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars, as well as journalists and political figures. Russia then continued its horrific human rights violations in the occupied Donbas, including the infamous Izolyatsiya prison, the head of state reminded.
He continued that since February 2022, Russia has extended these practices to the rest of the occupied Ukrainian territories. Moreover, the atrocities have grown in scale and cruelty.
In his opinion, this is precisely why Ukrainians are so touched by the footage of Syrians emerging from the dungeons they ended up in under the Assad regime.
— Assad and Putin are not just vassals and overlords. They are partners in violence. Dictators like Assad cannot survive without dictators like Putin. And Putin will try to avenge Assad's fall, — Zelensky believes.
The President is convinced that this is why the world needs unity and strength to resist regimes that sow only humiliation and leave behind only suffering, pain and ruin.
By helping Ukraine fight against the Russian dictatorship, Zelensky noted, the international community is helping many other regions of the world restore security and achieve protection from violence.
He is also convinced that there must be punishment for terrible atrocities. Only Putin and Assad deserve to go to jail, not the innocent people they've been putting in jail for years.
